Mosher Taking Numerous Memories Into Retirement

Darfus was a senior at Winter Park High School in 1966 and had been working out with the track team for three years. He never had a uniform, never participated in a meet. He was just a willing worker.

But Darfus kept after Coach Bob Mosher, kept asking, kept begging for an opportunity to compete. Mosher, impressed by his determination, gave him an oversized uniform -- and a safety pin to keep the pants from slipping -- so he could compete in a dual meet against Titusville, then coached by Nick Gailey. On the final lap of the 880, the safety pin broke, and the pants fell to Darfus' ankles. That didn't stop him. He adroitly stepped out of the pants and, running only in his jockey shorts, finished the race in third place.

Winter Park won the meet by one point.

''Many years later,'' Mosher said, ''George told me by allowing him to remain out there and compete, it made him more determined to succeed. He went on to be successful in business.''

That is one of many anecdotes that fill Mosher's memories on the final week of his 33rd year at Winter Park High School, his 36th year of coaching in Florida.

''Sacrifice and effort,'' Mosher, 65, said. ''I've always preached sacrifice more than anything else. The keys to our success at Winter Park was that most of the kids accepted that over the years.''

Mosher started the track program at Winter Park and coached it for 30 years. He started the cross-country program and coached it for nine years. He was athletic director for 17 years. He coached football, basketball, swimming and baseball. He was a charter member of the Florida Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame and a charter member of the National High School Athletic Coaches Association.

He was national coach of the year in 1982, national AD of the year in '84 and is a member of the Florida Track and Field Hall of Fame.

And if it wasn't for the cold Ohio winters, 2 1/2 years on a Navy hospital boat in the South Pacific, clogged sinuses that affected Vivian, his wife of 47 years, and a high school coach determined to guide Mosher into coaching, he might have been a retired, Midwest housepainter.

Mosher graduated in 1940 in a class of 13 at Bainbridge (Ohio) High School. ''If it hadn't been for sports, I never would have got out of school,'' Mosher said. ''Basketball was the key sport then. The town teams played football. We played football in Naval Aviator helmets and bib overhauls.

''The coach I had in high school Murray Janes always wanted me to go to school and into coaching. He kept me in school and kept me straight.''

Despite his coach's dreams, Mosher went to work and eventually to war, serving on the hospital troopship.

When he returned to Ohio, he worked in a factory doing electrical maintenance. ''I just froze to death after being in the South Pacific for 2 1/ 2 years,'' Mosher said.

''Vivian had sinuses so bad she couldn't breathe, and my folks moved to Florida in 1947. So we decided to all go to Florida, and I would go to school.''

His parents settled first in Taft, just south of Orlando, and Mosher went to Stetson University.

After Stetson, Mosher accepted a job at Safety Harbor Junior High School teaching six physical-education classes, running the football program and coaching outdoor basketball, baseball and track for $2,800. He ran a summer program for another $200. He resigned two years later and returned to Ohio because he could make more money painting houses in the summer.

''I thought I might end up at a school in Ohio,'' Mosher said, ''but I visited a few and just didn't like them. I guess I just had Florida in my heart.

''So, here it was August of 1954, five days before school was to start. I picked up the phone and called Harry Meisel, who was at Boone then. He told me there were two openings, so we packed up the family and came back to Orlando. But when I got there, the positions already were filled.

''Harry was so upset when I reached him, but he told me there were two positions open at Winter Park. I called Mr. O.C. Wilson, and he said he never gave a job without an interview. I told him I was on my way.''

During the interview, football coach Jack Jones and assistant coach Bill Orr came into Wilson's office. When Wilson learned that Orr and Mosher went to college together, it helped cement the relationship. Mosher never left.

Mosher began Winter Park's track program on an 80-by-80-yard field adjacent to the old high school. ''We ran square corners,'' he said. ''During an hour lunch break, we would get everybody out to high jump, long jump, whatever, just to find athletes. We ran the 100-yard dash to the road, across to a neighbor's yard. We sent kids into the road to stop all traffic, then cut them loose. The kids would run right to the hedges. Those who jumped over the hedges we turned into hurdlers.''